Online Content Management Systems allow you to consolidate the entire back-end of a website into a single secure yet easy to access location.

Traditionally any time you wanted to make an alteration to a website you needed to contact your Webmaster, who would in turn render your changes into code and and then use specialized programs to upload this code onto the servers which shared your information with the rest of the world.

No matter how responsive or dedicated your webmaster, the need to work through an additional person would build in a lag - one which would only be exacerbated by …

Flash, well known for its elegant moving images and animations, is the application of choice for creating beautiful websites. But many web developers have scrapped the idea of using Flash for business websites because text that is created in Flash is not always easy to recognize by search engines like Google. Search engine optimization has been, and continues to be, a priority for many businesses. So many web developers have gotten into the habit of settling for two alternatives: the less elegant look of a completely HTML site or a hybrid in which only some of the site elements, …

Over the past couple of decades, Internet users have learned that not all websites are created equal. There are a few things that the web savvy browser will look for without even realizing it. If you do not provide the answer, your visitors will come to their own conclusions.

Who wrote this page?

Remember that not everyone will find your website by typing it’s URL directly into their web browser. Most new visitors will follow links from search engines or other sites. One of the first things they’ll want to learn upon arriving is whom they are …
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You have heard of blogs and think they are not for you. Maybe your business doesn’t really suit the type of back and forth communication a blog thrives on, or maybe you simply don’t have enough time to write articles several times a week. Or, maybe you don’t like to write at all.

Don’t dismiss a blog just yet!

A blog site may be just what you need. A blog is really just a website. It just has the added functionality that allows visitors to comment on what you have to say or post. In addition to these posts people comment on, …

Two weeks ago Google announced “Rich Snippets,” a new campaign on their part to categorize frequently sought items. The four main categories they are focusing on at this time are people, businesses, products, and reviews.

What Google recognizes right now is patterns of letters. It cannot be said to truly understand them as words, let alone understand how they interact relative to each other. Perform a search for “Marissa Berger” and you will get a mix of company websites and individual social media profiles from different Marissa Bergers all across the country.

Rich Snippets will eventually give Google the …

Most people understand the saying “You Never Get A Second Chance To Make A First Impression”. However, it’s not applied to websites so much… and it should. Users get more and more sophisticated with time and have certain expectations of your website. You might be an expert at what you do, but are you communicating that on your site? Better yet, are you showing without telling?

That is the key. You want to show your expertise without having to tell users how great you are. This is done through a combination of engaging design, up-to-date good content, and good programming to …

Clients are often torn on whether to have a simple e-mail address or a contact form on their websites. On the one hand, users don’t like filling our forms and would find the e-mail link more user friendly. On the other hand, it’s nice to collect a minimal amount of information from each user for tracking and marketing purposes. It’s a fine line… how do you decide?

From the user’s perspective. You should consider having a form if:

• Your company has a well-functioning communications process to handle website leads. If by filling out a form, the user can get in touch with …
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The need for a professional writer becomes apparent when we start considering search engine optimization. After all, having a website no one finds does no good at all.

Writing for the web is different than writing for print. We need to make sure the content on all pages is consistent, speaks of benefits and not features, is readable (per web standards), and has a specific call to action. This is just for the human reader. Now we need to tweak this content for the search engines, mainly Google since it is used in approximately 70% of all web searches.

Here are a …

So, you have decided to invest on a content management system for your site. Which one should you use? Here are 10 key features a good CMS should have.

A) Supports custom design
When considering a content management system, make sure that you are not forced into using a particular design template. There are several inexpensive CMS solutions. The catch is that you have to choose one of their design templates and look like everyone else. Your website should have its own unique look. You want a system that can be …

I talked about what a content management system (CMS) is in an earlier post. I’d like to follow that with some key reasons why you should implement one on your site.

The obvious answer is so you can update and maintain your website without the need of a technical expert. The less obvious reason is that it actually helps you increase the revenue-generating power of your website.

A visitor to your website needs to feel comfortable completing a transaction on your website. That transaction can be an actual sale or a simple phone call. …